“Rain rain on my face. It hasn’t stopped, raining for days.” – Jars of Clay

Good morning everyone. This is Bryan Allain reporting live from my desk about 30 miles outside of Philadelphia. As of 9:42am DST this morning, it is 40 degrees and raining hard. The chances of the Phillies and Rays resuming game 5 tonight, in my opinion, are a coin flip. Then again, my meteorology degree is from the school of make believe, so what do I know?

Actually, that’s a good question. What do I know? Let’s run with that…

I know that it was MISERABLE last night. Sure, anyone could see that watching on TV, but I live an hour or so from Philly, and after watching the first 5 innings up the street at my brother-in-law’s house, I ran home to watch the rest of the game. Wow, was it nasty. It took me 30 seconds to get home, but by the time I walked inside I was soaked and freezing. I can’t believe they were attempting to play baseball in that weather. Worse yet, I can’t believe people were out WATCHING baseball in that weather.

I know that the MLB had decided already that the game would go a full 9 innings. You’ve probably heard the reports already, but MLB execs met on Saturday with execs from both teams and decided that the game would go the distance no matter the score. What we don’t know is who else knew. Apparently the players weren’t in the know (at least not all of them).

I know I mostly agree with Bill Conley, who came down hard on baseball this morning for even attempting to play the game. They should have been all over the weather situation, and when they saw that the strom was stalled and intensifying, they should have called it instead of crossing their fingers that they could finish it out.

I know the Rays must be annoyed that they got kicked out of their hotel. They were already checked out, anticipating a flight to Tampa no matter the outcome. But the weather forced them to stay in the area, and unfortunately their hotel rooms were already booked for a conference. The solution, stay in Wilmington, Delaware and wait it out.

I know the local weather man just came on the radio and said, in his opinion, there’s a 60% chance the rain will taper off and they will be able to have the field ready for tonight. So there you go, it’s essentially is a coin flip.

I know I agree with ticked off Phillies fans that stopping the game in the middle of the 6th inning was wrong. Why make the Phillies pitch and play defense in the 6th but not the Rays? If you knew you were going to resume the game anyway, why not just end it after the 5th? It seems to me that Selig was hoping the Rays would tie it up in the top of the 6th and that the Phillies would not score in the bottom of the 6th. Then he could suspend the game after 6 innings with it tied. He got the first half of his wish, when Pena singled in Upton with 2 outs, but when the Rays came out for the bottom, the field was laughably unplayable. He had no choice but to halt play. To me, the decision came 3 outs too late.

I know Philly fans are hoping they don’t play tonight. If the finish of Game 5 gets pushed to Wednesday, it could push a potential Game 7 back far enough where Cole Hamels could potentially start it. That is, as long as his left index finger didn’t get busted on his bunt attempt last night.

I know most people will blame a lot of this on television. I can’t blame them.

I’ll tell you what, these Philadelphia fans have been waiting a long time for a championship and just when it looked like they were on their way, [clever] things got muddy [/clever]. However this ends up playing out, you can expect baseball to address this in the off-season with a rule that says all World Series games must be played into the 9th inning. And hopefully baseball learns their lesson and is quicker to halt play when players are swapping their cleats for galoshes.

The season is so long as it is, they might as well wait an extra day or two to ensure the games are played in decent conditions. That’s my take on it. What about you? Do you think baseball handled this well?

PS…It’s 10:20am now and it’s still raining.